Afghans Have Schedule For Soviet Withdrawal

January 01, 1986|By New York Times News Service.

WASHINGTON — The Afghan government has informally presented a timetable for the withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Afghanistan within a one-year period as part of an overall accord, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.

He said the schedule for the withdrawal of the 120,000 Soviet soldiers was shown to the United Nations under secretary general for political affairs, Diego Cordovez of Ecuador, during the most recent UN-sponsored talks on a political settlement in Afghanistan. The talks were held in Geneva from Dec. 16 to 19.

An agreement on a timetable for the pullout of Soviet troops has been the major stumbling block in the negotiations, the official said.

In earlier rounds of talks, considerable progress was made in resolving such issues as the future of the existing Soviet-backed government, the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, new elections and guarantees of noninterference in Afghanistan, the official said.

He said that while the informal presentation of a withdrawal timetable was a positive development, there would be no accord until all the elements of the package were agreed to.

The next round of Geneva talks on Afghanistan is scheduled for February.

Afghanistan was discussed extensively at the November Geneva summit meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Reagan was said to have come away from the meeting believing that Gorbachev was interested in a political solution to the Afghan problem. The two men are to give brief televised addresses to each other`s people on Wednesday.

A major demand of the United States has been that the Soviet Union produce a timetable for the withdrawal of its troops.

In addition to the informal presentation of a withdrawal plan, there were other grounds for optimism, the senior official said. In a recent speech to foreign diplomats in Moscow, Gorbachev seemed to be suggesting a willingness to consider a deal.

The official said, ``While we have every right to be skeptical--to take an `I`ll believe it when I see it` attitude--I know that Afghanistan is so costly to the Soviets, in terms of dollars and prestige, that it seems logical to me that they might well be seeking an exit.``

In recent days, Reagan has twice spoken sharply about the presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan in remarks keyed to the sixth anniversary of the Soviet sweep into Afghanistan in December, 1979.